Ragglefraggle
Guest
First tank journey post! Thought I'd share how I'm doing and thank those who helped me.
How it started: got a 2am text from Driggett talking about how cool a saltwater tank is, figured it would be a cool way to study mineralized tissue like the type you see in bone grafts, signed up for the project.
Month 1: Day zero Introduced 6 line wrasse, skunk shrimp, and bicolor blenny to the brand new tank. No corals at that point but really just trying to get the cycle started and the tank situated.
- day 2, bicolor blenny was bullied to death by the 6 line and the youth of the tank definitely did not do it any favors. Named the shrimp "Tim the shrimp" after a good friend of mine so i'd love him a bit harder.
- day 4, got another bicolor blenny from local aquarium shop, used drip acclimation method to enable an easier introduction but due to constant hawrassement and the unestablished cycle it also perished.
- week 2: 6 Line succumbs to excessive amounts of destressing additive I added to calm it down. Poor thing got so calm it laid down on the sandbed. Only survivor from the harry's order was Tim, strengthening our bond.
- Week 3: coral farmers market, acquired a green/purple and a gold hammer coral to test. Dipped and introduced them to the tank, began to exhibit full polyp extension by 2nd day in the tank.
Month 2: Decided to test acropora in the tank by purchasing green slimer from Neptune in SJ. Used a quadruple dose of coral dip cuz didnt feel like following advice from Driggett. Slimer was peeling and dead by the end of the week. Aggressive injections of reefroid blasted off all of it's skin. Dahn suggested water parameters were off and gave us dose to rebalance parameters.
- acquired 2 adorable clownfish from clearwater, they were tiny but have since doubled in size. Affectionately named them after my tall friend and short friend which ultimately backfired as they are nearly the same size. Fed them frozen mysis shrimp and tons of pellets.
- Stressful workday and overall fatigue caused me to knock an entire bag of reefroids into the tank, had to do a 50% water change to bring parameters back to normal and not suffocate my beloved clowns.
- consistently tested to see if nitrate cycle was established. Due to excessive film algae nitrates were not detectable.
- introduced 2 adorable turbo snails to serve as cleanup for the film algae, purchased algae scraper to collab with them. Nitrates were detectable by end of the week. And the turbo snails inadvertently introduced copepods to the tank. (freaked out at first since i thought they were a pest)
- w33k 3: acquired various acros from H20Player to further test if tank was ready, meticulously measured water parameters. Managed to get polyp extension by day 2 from majority of corals added, overwhelmed with joy. Mushroom previously acquired from him has doubled in size. Those corals are a majority of what you see in my tank right now. The chalice I got doubled up in size and the monti's are encrusting and growing their edges.
- Won green anacropora in coral raffle from Bowl of Pho, wasnt trying to get a massive load of tickets, just ended up eating there quite a bit due to a very well made broth and probably the best pho steak I've ever had. Anacropora had great polyp extension by the second day and is still thriving.
- Noticed golden hammer had grown an extra head since it was acquired, was absolutely thrilled
- Frag Plug on golden hammer had been overrun with GHA, decided to remove the frag and and mount it on another plug. Bone cutter placement was done poorly and ended up crushing the coral's skeleton. Took the shattered remains of the coral and reattached it to a frag plug. (it managed to grow back from the verge of death thanks to well maintained water and consistent reef roid feedings. Skeleton had reformed at this point, reminded me of when I broke my arm as a kid.
Month 3: Green hair algae had taken the place of film algae, excessive amounts blocked out light and killed an acropora, decided to declare war against GHA.
- as suggested by Dahn, acquired an adorable tuxedo urchin and learned that they have suction cups to crawl up glass. Wanted to double up on algae munchers so acquired a lawnmower blenny while at clearwater. Noticed that lawnmower blenny's face reminded me of the movie 9, decided to not look at my tank often because I'm still traumatized by that film. (thanks alot Daniel Radcliff). Decided to name him "RatFish" to strengthen our relationship and pay homage to my sister's gineau pig whom we call Rat Pig (roll the R). Contemplated gineaupigs as an aquatic cleanup crew in reference to American Dad S10E16 but realized I was thinking of capybaras.
- Tuxedo Urchin and Blenny began to aggressively deal with the algae issue, blenny develops a serious beer belly and urchin is covered in algae but gha still takes hold. Gave them some help with my handy toothbrush and the issue got 80% better.
- Ordered a lovely Oregon blue tort from Abe, guy was kind enough to throw in an ff Foxflame with the order. Noticed spirobid worms on the frag plug, Abe advised they were not something to be concerned about so I rolled with it. My personal opinion, they're a good leaning neutral, I wont complain about filtration. Oregon blue produced extended polyps by day 2, FF foxflame encrusted and had full extension on everything. The internet told me slant mounting acros would help them grow faster so I designed some slant rack adapters for the oregon blue. Unfortunately the shaded side quickly started to bleach so I abandoned the idea of using a slant mount. I am still using the slant mount for my Green Purple hammer but I trust that he's hardy enough to handle it. He's gotten bigger since he was first introduced but hasnt split yet. Was hoping more light exposure on the skeleton itself will speed up the process.
So far so good in this process, everyone in the tank seems to be happy or at least not mad. Nothing has really died but I have yet to see impressive growth on my acros.
I'd like to give special thanks to Dahnsj for all the advice he's given me and rdriggett in our coral journey. H20Player for believing in us enough to sell us frags and the free frags earlier in the journey. Rdriggett for doing all the research and instructing me on how to get the tank going, honestly he's the brains of all the coral work I've done, I just supplement with a steady hand and a lab background which made testing a real breeze. This entire forum has been super helpful, I'm honestly really thankful for the community, the kindness and the advice everyone brings. Wish me luck in the gha fight, details about my tank are down the thread with a post from rdriggett.
Thank you! this is a long post haha, hope it was entertaining
oh and Tim likes to climb my hand and clean me hahaha, love that shromp.
How it started: got a 2am text from Driggett talking about how cool a saltwater tank is, figured it would be a cool way to study mineralized tissue like the type you see in bone grafts, signed up for the project.
Month 1: Day zero Introduced 6 line wrasse, skunk shrimp, and bicolor blenny to the brand new tank. No corals at that point but really just trying to get the cycle started and the tank situated.
- day 2, bicolor blenny was bullied to death by the 6 line and the youth of the tank definitely did not do it any favors. Named the shrimp "Tim the shrimp" after a good friend of mine so i'd love him a bit harder.
- day 4, got another bicolor blenny from local aquarium shop, used drip acclimation method to enable an easier introduction but due to constant hawrassement and the unestablished cycle it also perished.
- week 2: 6 Line succumbs to excessive amounts of destressing additive I added to calm it down. Poor thing got so calm it laid down on the sandbed. Only survivor from the harry's order was Tim, strengthening our bond.
- Week 3: coral farmers market, acquired a green/purple and a gold hammer coral to test. Dipped and introduced them to the tank, began to exhibit full polyp extension by 2nd day in the tank.
Month 2: Decided to test acropora in the tank by purchasing green slimer from Neptune in SJ. Used a quadruple dose of coral dip cuz didnt feel like following advice from Driggett. Slimer was peeling and dead by the end of the week. Aggressive injections of reefroid blasted off all of it's skin. Dahn suggested water parameters were off and gave us dose to rebalance parameters.
- acquired 2 adorable clownfish from clearwater, they were tiny but have since doubled in size. Affectionately named them after my tall friend and short friend which ultimately backfired as they are nearly the same size. Fed them frozen mysis shrimp and tons of pellets.
- Stressful workday and overall fatigue caused me to knock an entire bag of reefroids into the tank, had to do a 50% water change to bring parameters back to normal and not suffocate my beloved clowns.
- consistently tested to see if nitrate cycle was established. Due to excessive film algae nitrates were not detectable.
- introduced 2 adorable turbo snails to serve as cleanup for the film algae, purchased algae scraper to collab with them. Nitrates were detectable by end of the week. And the turbo snails inadvertently introduced copepods to the tank. (freaked out at first since i thought they were a pest)
- w33k 3: acquired various acros from H20Player to further test if tank was ready, meticulously measured water parameters. Managed to get polyp extension by day 2 from majority of corals added, overwhelmed with joy. Mushroom previously acquired from him has doubled in size. Those corals are a majority of what you see in my tank right now. The chalice I got doubled up in size and the monti's are encrusting and growing their edges.
- Won green anacropora in coral raffle from Bowl of Pho, wasnt trying to get a massive load of tickets, just ended up eating there quite a bit due to a very well made broth and probably the best pho steak I've ever had. Anacropora had great polyp extension by the second day and is still thriving.
- Noticed golden hammer had grown an extra head since it was acquired, was absolutely thrilled
- Frag Plug on golden hammer had been overrun with GHA, decided to remove the frag and and mount it on another plug. Bone cutter placement was done poorly and ended up crushing the coral's skeleton. Took the shattered remains of the coral and reattached it to a frag plug. (it managed to grow back from the verge of death thanks to well maintained water and consistent reef roid feedings. Skeleton had reformed at this point, reminded me of when I broke my arm as a kid.
Month 3: Green hair algae had taken the place of film algae, excessive amounts blocked out light and killed an acropora, decided to declare war against GHA.
- as suggested by Dahn, acquired an adorable tuxedo urchin and learned that they have suction cups to crawl up glass. Wanted to double up on algae munchers so acquired a lawnmower blenny while at clearwater. Noticed that lawnmower blenny's face reminded me of the movie 9, decided to not look at my tank often because I'm still traumatized by that film. (thanks alot Daniel Radcliff). Decided to name him "RatFish" to strengthen our relationship and pay homage to my sister's gineau pig whom we call Rat Pig (roll the R). Contemplated gineaupigs as an aquatic cleanup crew in reference to American Dad S10E16 but realized I was thinking of capybaras.
- Tuxedo Urchin and Blenny began to aggressively deal with the algae issue, blenny develops a serious beer belly and urchin is covered in algae but gha still takes hold. Gave them some help with my handy toothbrush and the issue got 80% better.
- Ordered a lovely Oregon blue tort from Abe, guy was kind enough to throw in an ff Foxflame with the order. Noticed spirobid worms on the frag plug, Abe advised they were not something to be concerned about so I rolled with it. My personal opinion, they're a good leaning neutral, I wont complain about filtration. Oregon blue produced extended polyps by day 2, FF foxflame encrusted and had full extension on everything. The internet told me slant mounting acros would help them grow faster so I designed some slant rack adapters for the oregon blue. Unfortunately the shaded side quickly started to bleach so I abandoned the idea of using a slant mount. I am still using the slant mount for my Green Purple hammer but I trust that he's hardy enough to handle it. He's gotten bigger since he was first introduced but hasnt split yet. Was hoping more light exposure on the skeleton itself will speed up the process.
So far so good in this process, everyone in the tank seems to be happy or at least not mad. Nothing has really died but I have yet to see impressive growth on my acros.
I'd like to give special thanks to Dahnsj for all the advice he's given me and rdriggett in our coral journey. H20Player for believing in us enough to sell us frags and the free frags earlier in the journey. Rdriggett for doing all the research and instructing me on how to get the tank going, honestly he's the brains of all the coral work I've done, I just supplement with a steady hand and a lab background which made testing a real breeze. This entire forum has been super helpful, I'm honestly really thankful for the community, the kindness and the advice everyone brings. Wish me luck in the gha fight, details about my tank are down the thread with a post from rdriggett.
Thank you! this is a long post haha, hope it was entertaining
oh and Tim likes to climb my hand and clean me hahaha, love that shromp.
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